| Now is the time to sign up for creative writing classes and workshops at ASU Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing. |
| Summer Classes and Workshops Featuring creative writing classes and workshops in fiction, poetry, social justice, spiritual writing and more with Todd Mitchell, Justin Noga, Stella Pope Duarte, Erin Noehre, Laura Maher, Mark Athitakis, and Saretta Morgan (some of which are free) Classes start as low as $99. All classes are not-for-credit, and are intended for and open to the public. Writers of all genres, backgrounds, and experience levels are welcome to attend. Don’t forget! Fellowships for the 2020 Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference close June 15. Scroll down to learn more or visit our website at piper.asu.edu/classes |
| Find a Class |
| Wild Transformations: Compelling Narratives with Todd Mitchell Saturday, May 18 Fiction WorkshopFictioneering the Non-Fictiony: Writing Games with Justin Noga Saturday, June 1 Free WorkshopWe Cannot Look Away: Social Conscience with Stella Pope Duarte Saturday, June 15 Mixed Genre Workshop |
| Writing Toward the Boundaries of Grief and God with Erin Noehre Tuesdays, June 18 – 25 Free Epistolary WorkshopConsider the Body: The Poetics of Disease and Health with Laura Maher Saturday, July 20 Poetry Workshop |
| Built Environments: Formal Innovation with Saretta Morgan Tuesdays, July 23 – Aug 13 Cross-genre Writing StudioBuilding a Freelance Writing Career with Mark Athitakis Saturday, April 3 Business of Writing |
| Keep reading to learn more about each class or visit our website at piper.asu.edu/classes |
| Find a Class |
| Wild Transformations: Vital Secrets for Creating Compelling Narratives with Todd Mitchell Date: Saturday, May 18, 2019, 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Types: Generative Workshop, Workshop Genre & Form: Fiction, Novels, Short Stories Cost: $119 Regular, $99 StudentLearn More & RegisterAbout the Class Looking to create a story or character that leaves your reader wanting more? Learn the necessities of constructing compelling narratives with author and educator, Todd Mitchell. In this interactive workshop, participants will explore effective techniques for increasing conflict, revealing characters, and writing stories that readers (and editors) won’t be able to put down. Tip sheets and worksheets will be included so you can immediately apply concepts and get feedback during the session. By the end, participants will have a greater understanding of how to structure narratives to engage readers while using plot to explore and reveal characters. |
| Fictioneering the Non-Fictiony: Experimental Writing Games with Justin Noga Date: Saturday, June 1, 2019, 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Types: Generative Workshop Genre & Form: Fiction, Flash, Memoir, Novels, Short Stories Cost: FreeLearn More & RegisterAbout the Class Your falling-out with a best friend from childhood. Your family’s buffoonery in a public setting. Your perceptions of sex last year, ten years back, twenty years back. These are all gems of our lives that, with a little snip or suture, can become springboards for fictions with real resonance. In this generative short workshop, we will use a series of experimental and collaborative writing games to mine out moments from our own lives—half-remembered or not—which we will bend and stretch and snap and reshape into fictions wholly their own. By allowing ourselves to shift these realities, we can harness the emotional energies of those old memories, and breathe new life into them. |
| We Cannot Look Away: Exploring a Social Conscience with Stella Pope Duarte Date: Saturday, June 15, 2019, 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Types: Generative Workshop, Workshop Genre & Form: Human Rights, Mixed Genre, Research, Social Practice, Therapeutic Practice, Women’s Studies Cost: $119 Regular, $99 StudentLearn More & RegisterAbout the Class When confronting a tragedy, we might ask ourselves several questions: What is going on over there? How can this be happening? Why doesn’t someone do something? These are questions often asked by writers who look at society with an eye for tackling tough issues and standing up for what is right. In this course, writers will explore society’s dark side. Pope Duarte will guide students through techniques for research, interviewing, and getting to the heart of a story, as these skills will be an open door for creating heart-warming, healing works that make a difference for generations to come, offering hope in the midst of despair. Participants will consider books that explore the human experience and deliver it with precision and power, often remain a part of our global memory—forever. |
| Writing Toward the Boundaries of Grief and God with Erin Noehre Date: Tuesdays, June 18 – 25, 2019, 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Types: Generative Workshop, Workshop Genre & Form: Flash, Poetry, Spiritual Writing Cost: FreeLearn More & RegisterAbout the Class In this generative workshop will explore the ways poets have used the epistolary form to scatter grief to the heavens to relieve the pressure of pain that may have grown anger, resentment, and bitterness within us. The “god” here is not a religious god, but instead any figure, creature, or higher power we feel is a possible arch to throw our bereavement over. In this two-part workshop, we’ll discuss a few poems that use this form and examine how they use language to connect our bodies to grief. Then we will do some generative exercises and meet again to discuss how the process went for us and read each other’s work to provide feedback. |
| Consider the Body: The Poetics of Disease and Health with Laura Maher Date: Saturday, July 20, 2019, 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Types: Generative Workshop, Workshop Genre & Form: Poetry, Hybrid Cost: $89 Regular, $69 StudentLearn More & RegisterAbout the Class Participants will consider the ways in which language shapes our understanding of our bodies and how it impacts our experiences of good health and illness. Through readings, conversations, and writing and movement exercises, we will explore how we describe our bodies and their functions (or dysfunctions), how medicine and healthcare systems describe our bodies and their functions, and how poetry regards both. With a focus on inquiry and creative thinking, students will generate new work and engage with texts—both their own writing and the writing of others—to explore how we write lyrically about the body in health, disease, ability, disability, and more. |
| Built Environments: The Craft of Formal Innovation with Saretta Morgan Date: Tuesdays, Jul 23 – Aug 13, 2019, 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Types: Generative Workshop, Lecture, Workshop Genre & Form: Creative Nonfiction, Experimental, Fiction, Hybrid, Poetry Cost: $199 Regular, $149 StudentLearn More & RegisterAbout the Class We experience our lives through form. The layout of a house, the format of a letter, or the etiquette of public interaction. When these forms shift, we are forced to take notice. In this cross-genre writing studio, we will examine how language and narrative develop differently according to structural decisions crafted by the author. Participants will explore how voice, themes and images emerge through attention to life’s many architectures, and experiment with new narrative and poetic forms based on their own unique personal experiences and close readings of a range of texts. |
| Building a Freelance Writing Career with Mark Athitakis Date: Saturday, August 3, 2019, 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Types: Generative Workshop, Workshop Genre & Form: Business of Writing, Creative Nonfiction, Journalism Cost: $99 Regular, $79 StudentLearn More & RegisterAbout the Class Looking to build or expand your freelance career? This workshop will guide you through the basics of freelance writing: finding your focus as a writer, identifying publications, crafting a pitch, connecting with editors, and building ongoing relationships. We’ll talk about what to expect out of contracts, managing money, tips for improving your chances at making a sale, and how to find supportive groups that can encourage you to keep working. Please come prepared to write and discuss a story idea you’d like to pursue. |